Thursday, September 2, 2010

Open Mouth: Insert Foot

After deleting this week's primary vitriol, I got smacked for my earlier vitriol in the post The Empire of Nothing.

Stephen Mace took the time to respond himself to my comments, and noted two huge issues. First, his discussion of Nulls takes place in Seizing Power, not Taking Power. Second, I also got the essay in question wrong. He discusses the Nulls in Hierarchy: Ready Brain for the New Demiurge, not in For Those Who Would Subvert the Status Quo. This was extremely sloppy my part, and tells me that I need to start citing things like a bastard again to avoid ever making that mistake again.

Finally, as my responses to his comments show, I don't know if I understand his concept of the Null entirely anymore. In short: I did exactly the things I criticized, and opened my mouth when I probably shouldn't have.

This brings home the need to start citing things again - and figuring out how to do that properly in Wordpress - and my need to pay stricter attention to what I write, rather than just writing to write. Finally, maybe it's time for me to start seriously working with an entity that deals with some compassion or something less aggressive, because my tendencies are getting out of hand.

In short: I really am a dumbass, sometimes, and that shit is unacceptable. Now, to go make some edits.

5 comments:

Don't feel too bad bro...there is a lot of sloppy-ass quoting and generalizing in the occult blogosphere, and I'm just as guilty as most. The author actually read your blog....your just too popular for your own good!

I think you're right on in that, after a certain critical mass is reached, we have to start citing and quoting responsibly, like journalists. Which is strange, but what can you do?

@AIT: Yeah, yeah. It's hard not to feel silly at the moment. I finally get a chance to chat with one of my favorite authors, except that it's all wrong. I've miscited and misunderstood things and run my mouth when I oughtn't. Bah.

And yeah, that's some retrograde goodness. The funny thing is that before yesterday I thought I'd gotten above some of the issues, and was done with this round's lesson. Guess not, right?

Well. Karma is a bitch. I'll take it as it comes and just try to do better in the future.

And thanks for the respect, but mang... It aint very deserving for me today. Much love nonetheless.

It's hard not to feel silly at the moment. I finally get a chance to chat with one of my favorite authors, except that it's all wrong. I've miscited and misunderstood things and run my mouth when I oughtn't. Bah.

Aww, you're beating yourself up because you give a shit. You know that asshole post I made about not being a dick? That wasn't about you. You can be a dick, it's ok. The target audience of my post was the good guys who want to be compassionate and stuff.

Holy crap! I just realized, when Merc goes Retro, you turn into a nice guy who cares what people think! Literally LOL!